PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 8

Probashi-Cover Story

Creating Anthropological History

Maurice Vidal Portman (1860-1935) [in center] with men from the Greater
Anadamanese tribe. Portman was a British naval officer, who is best known for his
documentation and pacification of several Andamanese tribes between 1879 and
1901 especially the Onges. His means of establishing contact with the tribes would
not get approval of the modern anthropologists, which included use of force. He
wrote two books, Notes of the Languages of the South Andaman (1898) and A
History of Our Relations with the Andamanese (1899).

the mainland, proximity to the
British and the convicts made the
Andamanese ill and they started
dying in large numbers. Their
population dwindled from 3500 in
1858 to 625 by 1901 and at present
they number 40 and are settled in
Strait Island in the Andamans.
Unlike the Great Andamanese, the
Jarawas did not give in to the
British. As the British started
clearing the forests for logging and
settlements, Jarawas took up arms
and would ambush convict workers
making roads and other civil works
deep in their territory. Such was
the determination of the Jarawas to
protect
their
habitat
that
Bonington, a British official, at the
end of an expedition against the
Jarawas in 1931 wrote “the
expeditions did not stop Jarawa
raids, the Jarawa is implacable and
will
continue
to
fight
to
extermination”,
During World War II the Japanese
incessantly bombarded the Jarawa
territory believing that the British
Army to be hiding in Jarawa area.

outsiders into Jarawa territory.
After 150 years of resistance
Jarawas probably realised that they
are probably now outnumbered and
outgunned and they have started
making contact with the outsiders
since 1998. What has followed is
pathetic; the once proud tribe have
now become showpieces, and are
found begging from tourists who go
along the highway on Jarawa safari.
Exploitation of Jarawa women is not
unheard of, and there are YouTube
videos of Jarawa women being
asked to dance for money. Jarawas
presently number around 250 and
are settled in the Jarawa reserve on
the west coast of South and Middle
Andaman. The first friendly contact
with the Jarawas was however
made in 1975 by Anthropological
Survey of India contact party. But
those contacts were sporadic but
professionally planned.

However what British guns or
Japanese bombs could not do, the
Indian government did, when it
built the Andaman Trunk Road in
1970s through the Jarawa territory
and settled large number of Onge another Andamanese tribe
Bangladeshi refugees in the were mainly concentrated on the
Islands. This brought in a flood of Little Andaman Islands, remained

Sentinelese aim arrows as an Indian Coast Guard helicopter: After the Tsunami in
2004, an Indian Coast Guard helicopter went to check on the Sentinelese , the
most secluded people on earth, whether they had survived the tidal onslaught. As
the helicopter was hovering over the Islands, the coast guard commander Anil
Thapliyal saw the Sentinelese come out of the forest shooting arrows. The
Sentinelese had survived, based on their knowledge of nature and its movements.
Never before has the Indian Coast Guard been so pleased at being attacked. Photo
courtsey: the Indian Coast Guard
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